Contoy Island- Isla Contoy is a small island in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, approximately 30 kilometers north of Isla Mujeres. The island is only 8.5 km in length and has an area of 3.17 square kilometers. Natural refuge for over 150 species of birds, Contoy is a protected island located north of Isla Mujeres in Quintana Roo. Since 1961, Isla Contoy is protected by the Mexican government and was declared a national park in February 1998. The island is jointly run by the Isla Mujeres-based non-governmental organization, Amigos de Isla Contoy A.C. and the Secretary of Environment, Natural Resources and Fishing (SEMARNAT). Supervised eco-tourism and regulated commercial fishing is allowed on and near the island. Only a few tour companies have permission to bring the only at maximum 200 daily visitors to Isla Contoy. Visitors need to apply for permission to visit the island at the park offices in Isla Mujeres or Cancún. Four species of turtle find a safe haven for nesting on the beaches of the island, namely the loggerhead turtle, Green turtle, Hawksbill turtle, and the leatherback turtle. The reserve is also a sanctuary to approximately 152 tropical marine birds, like the frigate bird, brown pelican, and the double-crested cormorant.
Agua Azul Waterfall- The indigo blue water, green vegetation, the constant breeze and the inexhaustible sound of water make this place in Chiapas, one of the most spectacular and unforgettable in Mexico. The Cascadas de Agua Azul are found in the Mexican state of Chiapas. They are located in the Municipality of Tumbalá, 69 kilometers from Palenque by the road that leads towards San Cristóbal de las Casas. This waterfall consists of many cataracts following one after another as can be seen in the first photo in the picture gallery, taken from near the top of the sequence of cascades. The larger cataracts may be as high as 6 meters (20 feet) or so. The one pictured to the right is next to the bottom of the sequence. The water is as blue as it looks in the pictures, and has a high mineral content. Where it falls on rocks or fallen trees it encases them in a thick shell-like coating of limestone. This can be seen clearly in one of the minor falls in one of the pictures in the gallery below, where the part of a tree that leans against the waterfall is heavily coated while the part further away is not coated. Some fully coated log shapes can also be seen inside the fall in that same picture, as well as coating on the rocks. During much of the distance the water descends in two streams, with small islands in the middle.
Cave of Swallows- An impressive abyss with a depth of 376 meters in San Luis Potosi, where thousands of birds live. The Cave of Swallows, also called Cave of the Swallows, is an open air pit cave in the Municipality of Aquismón, San Luis Potosí, Mexico. The elliptical mouth, on a slope of karst, is 49 by 62 m wide and is undercut around all of its perimeter, widening to a room approximately 303 by 135 meters (994 by 442 ft) wide. The floor of the cave is a 333-meter (1092 ft) freefall drop from the lowest side of the opening, with a 370-meter (1,214 ft) drop from the highest side, making it the largest known cave shaft in the world, the second deepest pit in Mexico and perhaps the 11th deepest in the world. The cave has been known to the local Huastec people since ancient times. The first documented descent was on 27 December 1966 by T. R. Evans, Charles Borland and Randy Sterns. The cave is formed in the El Abra and Tamabra formations, limestones of Middle Cretaceous age. The cave's speleogenesis is still not fully known but is a result of solutional enlargement along a vertical fracture, with subsequent vadose enlargement.
Amusement Parks
Six Flags México is an amusement park located in the Tlalpan forest and borough, on the southern edge of Mexico City, Mexico. It is owned and operated by Six Flags Inc. and the only Six Flags park operating in Latin America. Reino Aventura (Spanish for "Adventure Kingdom") opened its gates in 1982, and is since then the largest theme park in Latin America. The park's mascot was a purple cartoon dragon named Cornelio. Since its opening, no new attractions were added, thus attendance dropped. In 1992 the park was closed for an extensive remodeling as well as adding new rides, opening once again on July 3, 1993, with the new moniker El Nuevo Reino Aventura (The New Adventure Kingdom) featuring new rides such as Río Salvaje (Wild River, a raft ride), Viaje Inesperado (Unexpected Trip, a motion simulator) and Roller Skater (a Vekoma Kiddie Coaster) and Power Tower (Now is Kilahuea) In that same year, the feature film Free Willy was shot in the park.
Xel-ha- Xel-Ha Park is a commercial aquatic theme park and ecotourism development located on the Caribbean coast of the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico, in the municipality of Solidaridad. It is part of Xcaret Experiencias Group which also owns the Xplor Park, Xcaret Park, and Xenses Park; as well as the Xichen, Xenotes, and Xoximilco tours and activities. It is situated within the "Riviera Maya", a region promoted as a tourism corridor along Highway 307. It is approximately 240 kilometres (149 mi) to the north of Chetumal, and 122 kilometres (76 mi) south of Cancun.The park is named after the site of Xelha, an archaeological site of the pre-ColumbianMaya civilization, part of which is located within the lands leased to the park. The Maya site of Tulum is nearby, some 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) to the south. The theme park was founded in 1984, and is under the management and marketing of the Mexican-owned Experiencias Xcaret Group. The park is centered around the natural inlet and lagoon, which is promoted as one of the main attractions of the park that forms with the flow of the river through rocks mixing salty waters with fresh underground water currents. A variety of aquatic-based activities are offered by the theme park, including snorkelling, scuba diving, and swimming with dolphins.
La Feria Chapultepec Mágico- La Feria Chapultepec Mágico is an amusement park in Mexico City, Mexico. Located in the middle of Chapultepec Park near the Constituyentes Metro station, it opened in 1964 as Juegos Mecánicos de Chapultepec and was operated by the Mexican government. In 1992 Grupo CIE bought it and changed the name to the current one. La Feria Chapultepec Mágico has approximately 50 different rides and other amusements, as well as several animal attractions.While this list includes many flat rides, it also includes several former record-holding roller coasters: among these, Montaña Rusa, which held the world's record for tallest roller coaster, and Montaña Infinitum, which was the first roller coaster in the world with three vertical loops.One of the coasters, Cascabel, was formerly at Kennywood amusement park near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.The park also contains a wild mouse roller coaster named Ratón Loco. Some travel guides cite the relatively low cost of visiting La Feria Chapultepec Mágico when compared to other North American amusement parks. The park has a multi-tiered pricing structure for its ride passes. Lower cost passes allow for admission to many of the smaller flat rides, while more expensive passes allow for admission to the more extreme rides, such as the roller coasters.
Adventures Resorts
DEEP-SEA FISHING: CABO SAN LUCAS- In 1940, John Steinbeck embarked on an expedition to the Sea of Cortez to catalog marine life along Cabo’s rocky, undeveloped coastline, and found it “ferocious with life.” Though the town of Cabo San Lucas is now known as a luxury golf destination, it first earned its reputation through its prized access to waters teeming with fish. With the Pacific Ocean on one side and the Sea of Cortez on the other, Cabo offers exceptional sport fishing at the confluence of both in the harbor’s deep-water canyons. The area hasn’t been nicknamed the “marlin capital of the world” for nothing. An estimated 50,000 billfish — fast-swimming trophy fish that include marlin, swordfish and sailfish — are caught every year, and angling competitions stir up the resort strip in the fall months. Shark boats use longlines, which have about 1,000 hooks, and that method results in large incidental catches of other species, and the fishing community is advocating a return to a 50-mile distance to protect juvenile sharks and game fish populations, which are found closer to shore. “The fishing experience in Cabo can be unforgettable, and the marlin are the biggest challenge — they’re what people come here to catch,” said Juan Beltran, a reservations agent and dockmaster for Pisces Fleet Sportfishing.
HIKING: THE SIERRA NORTE- The Sierra Norte is one of the most biologically diverse mountain systems in Mexico, blanketing an area of about 6,500 square miles in the northern part of Oaxaca state. Its diverse topography includes steep mountain slopes covered in pine and oak, cactus-clad 5,000-foot valleys and lush tropical coastline, with an elevation range from sea level to 10,000 feet. The Sierra Norte is part of a bioregion designated by Conservation International as one of the richest and most endangered in the world, with unique species of orchids and wildlife including southern flying squirrels, Pacific orange tip butterflies, Oaxaca hummingbirds and white-throated jays. The trip starts with an exploration of the colorful and historic city of Oaxaca, including visits to the pre-Columbian ruins of Monte Alban and Mitla. From there, it continues to the mountains, where a few days are spent hiking and living in the Sierra Norte with Zapotec communities that remain largely traditional and untouched by modern life. Because of its remoteness, the Sierra Norte is seldom explored beyond the fringes of the city of Oaxaca, and much of it is inhabited by various indigenous communities. But the hiking in the Sierra Norte is stunning, and the Puerto Vallarta-based travel company Journey Mexico leads a nine-day tour that takes trekkers through a tapestry of ecosystems.
SURFING: SAYULITA- Surfers have been crossing the border to ride waves along Mexico’s Pacific coast for decades, and this small coastal fishing village 30 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta has lately achieved the perfect mix of lively beachfront bars, surf camps and terra-cotta architectural charm — all, most importantly, with easy access to numerous breaks ideal for beginners and for intermediates looking to sharpen their technique. Advanced riders might head south to the body-wrecking barrels at Puerto Escondido, but the rest of us mere mortals will be content to spend a week or two skimming the waves there. An easy right break on Sayulita’s bay, just off a curving white-sand stretch of town beach, is where longboarders spend most of their time; if those waves get too big, beginners can always move down the beach and find smaller ones. Most everything in Sayulita is within walking distance, from the beach to the grocery stores and cafes in the village center to the surrounding jungle. The village might not be a secret anymore, but it’s far from being overrun by tourists. Access Trips’ seven-day surf safaris are led by a local surfer, Javier Chavez, and a core team of instructors. The student-to-teacher ratio is capped at an intimate 4 to 1, and all trip leaders are locals. Days are spent surfing the bay and visiting other secluded surf spots north and south of Sayulita that are accessible only by boat. In the winter, humpback whales cruising by the bay are a bonus.
Places to visit
Guadalajara- Guadalajara is a city in western Mexico. It’s known for tequila and mariachi music, both born in Jalisco, the state of which Guadalajara is the capital. Guadalajara’s historic center is dotted with colonial plazas and landmarks such as the neoclassical Teatro Degollado and a cathedral with twin gold spires. The Palacio del Gobierno houses famous murals by painter José Clemente Orozco. Guadalajara is the 10th largest city in Latin America in population, urban area and gross domestic product.The city is named after the Spanish city of Guadalajara, the name of which came from the Andalusian Arabicwād(i) l-ḥijāra (واد الحجارة or وادي الحجارة), meaning "river/valley of stones".The city's economy is based on services and industry, especially information technology, with a large number of international firms having regional offices and manufacturing facilities in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area, and several domestic IT companies headquartered in the city. Other, more traditional industries, such as shoes, textiles and food processing are also important contributing factors. The city was established in five other places before moving to its current location. The first settlement in 1532 was in Mesa del Cerro, now known as Nochistlán, Zacatecas. This site was settled by Cristóbal de Oñate as commissioned by Nuño de Guzmán, with the purpose of securing recent conquests and defending them against the still-hostile natives.
Chihuahua- Chihuahua City is the capital of the northwestern Mexican state of Chihuahua. It's known for the Spanish Baroque Cathedral de Chihuahua and the 18th-century Palacio de Gobierno, a government building where massive murals depict major Mexican historical events. The city is also home to the eastern terminus of the Chepe railroad, which runs through the green-tinged gorges of the Copper Canyon area. It is located in Northwestern Mexico and is bordered by the states of Sonora to the west, Sinaloa to the southwest, Durango to the south, and Coahuila to the east. To the north and northeast, it has a long border with the U.S. adjacent to the U.S. states of New Mexico and Texas. Chihuahua is the largest state in Mexico by area, with an area of 247,455 square kilometres (95,543 sq mi), it is slightly larger than the United Kingdom. The state is consequently known under the nickname El Estado Grande ("The Big State"). Although Chihuahua is primarily identified with the Chihuahuan Desert for namesake, it has more forests than any other state in Mexico, with the exception of Durango. Due to its variant climate, the state has a large variety of fauna and flora. The state is mostly characterized by rugged mountainous terrain and wide river valleys. The Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range, an extension of the Rocky Mountains, dominates the state's terrain and is home to the state's greatest attraction, Las Barrancas del Cobre, or Copper Canyon, a canyon system larger and deeper than the Grand Canyon.
Puerto Vallarta- Puerto Vallarta is a resort town on Mexico’s Pacific coast, in Jalisco state. It is known for its beaches, water sports and nightlife scene. Its cobblestone center is home to the ornate Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe church, boutique shops and a range of restaurants and bars. El Malecón is a beachside promenade with contemporary sculptures, as well as bars, lounges and nightclubs.Puerto Vallarta is named after Ignacio Vallarta, a former governor of Jalisco. In Spanish, Puerto Vallarta is frequently shortened to "Vallarta", while English speakers call the city P.V. for short. In internet shorthand the city is often referred to as PVR, after the International Air Transport Association airport code for its Gustavo Diaz Ordaz International Airport. Puerto Vallarta's proximity to the Bay of Banderas, the agricultural valley of the Ameca River, and the important mining centers in the Sierra have given the town a more interesting past than most Mexican tourist destinations. Puerto Vallarta was a thriving Mexican village long before it became an international tourist destination. Tourism was a major economic activity because of the climate, scenery, tropical beaches, and rich cultural history.In 1918, the village was elevated to municipality status and renamed after former state governorIgnacio Vallarta. During the early years of the 20th century, most of Puerto Vallarta was owned by the Union en Cuale company controlled by the American Alfred Geist. Geist sold land only in large plots at prices that were quite high for the time and otherwise leased the land on short term leases.
Museums
Museo Soumaya- If you don’t know the name, you’ll know the building. Designed by Fernando Romero and owned by Carlos Slim, Museo Soumaya is a curvaceous architectural masterpiece that calls the upscale Miguel Hidalgo district home. It is only rivaled in modern museum excellence by Bilbao’s Guggenheim. Inside, find a stunning range of works by the so-called European Old Masters, including French Auguste Rodin. The Museo Soumaya, designed by the Mexican architect Fernando Romero, is a private museum in Mexico City. It is a non-profit cultural institution with two museum buildings in Mexico City - Plaza Carso and Plaza Loreto. It has over 66,000 works from 30 centuries of art including sculptures from Pre-HispanicMesoamerica, 19th- and 20th-century Mexican art and an extensive repertoire of works by European old masters and masters of modern western art such as Auguste Rodin, Salvador Dalí, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and Tintoretto. It is considered one of the most complete collections of its kind. The museum is named after Soumaya Domit, who died in 1999, and was the wife of the founder of the museum Carlos Slim. The museum received an attendance of 1,095,000 in 2013, making it the most visited art museum in Mexico and the 56th in the world that year. In October 2015, the museum welcomed its five millionth visitor.
Museo de Arte Popular- Another artsy option makes our best Mexico City museum list, and with good reason. The Museo de Arte Popular is so much more than just spectacular pieces; it’s a window into Mexico’s artistic cultural history. With permanent exhibits divided into categories such as temporary exhibits Ana María Casanueva’s ‘Con Las Manos En La Masa’ (‘Hands in the Dough’), it’s immersive and unmissable. The Popular Art Museum is a museum in Mexico City, Mexico that promotes and preserves part of the Mexican handcrafts and folk art. Located in the historic center of Mexico City in an old fire house, the museum has a collection which includes textiles, pottery, glass, piñatas, alebrijes, furniture and much more. However, the museum is best known as the sponsor of the yearly, Noche de Alebrijes (Night of the Alebrijes) parade in which the fantastical creatures are constructed on a monumental scale and then paraded from the main plaza or Zocalo to the Angel of Independence monument, competing for prizes. The Museo de Arte Popular opened in March 2006. Its purpose is to serve as a reference for Mexican crafts as well as promoting them through workshops, and other events to both Mexico and foreign tourism. And dignify Mexican crafts though restoration of older works and the promotion of their creation both inside and outside the museum itself.
Museo Frida Kahlo- Museo Frida Kahlo is definitely the perfect balance of both art gallery and museum. Known as ‘The Blue House’ for its eye-catching color scheme, Museo Frida Kahlo is one of Mexico’s most instantly recognizable and iconic artistic exports. Her house-cum-gallery is a museum that’s a classic on the Mexico City scene, featuring serene gardens with cats nestling in and amongst the cactuses. Each room is like walking into one of her paintings; immersive, vibrant and distinctly Frida. The Frida Kahlo Museum, also known as the Blue House for the structure's cobalt-blue walls, is a historic house museum and art museum dedicated to the life and work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. It is located in the Colonia del Carmen neighborhood of Coyoacán in Mexico City. The building was the birthplace of Kahlo and is also the home where she grew up, lived with her husband Diego Rivera for a number of years, and eventually died, in one of the rooms on the upper floor. In 1958, Diego Rivera donated the home and its contents in order to turn it into a museum in Frida's honor. The museum contains a collection of artwork by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and other artists along with the couple’s Mexican folk art, pre-Hispanic artifacts, photographs, memorabilia, personal items, and more. The collection is displayed in the rooms of the house which remains much as it was in the 1950s. Today, it is the most popular museum in Coyoacán and one of the most visited in Mexico City.
Historical significance
Mayan History- Crystalinks. The Mayans were equally skilled as weavers and potters, and cleared routes through jungles and swamps to foster extensive trade networks with distant peoples.The Maya are probably the best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica. Originating in the Yucatan around 2600 B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, western Honduras, El Salvador, and northern Belize. The Maya are probably the best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica. Originating in the Yucatan around 2600 B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, western Honduras, El Salvador, and northern Belize. Building on the inherited inventions and ideas of earlier civilizations such as the Olmec, the Mayans developed astronomy, calendrical systems and hieroglyphic writing. The Mayans were noted as well for elaborate and highly decorated ceremonial architecture, including temple-pyramids, palaces and observatories, all built without metal tools. They were also skilled farmers, clearing large sections of tropical rain forest and, where groundwater was scarce, building sizable underground reservoirs for the storage of rainwater.
Toltec- Nicholson, which all held the Toltecs to have been an actual ethnic group. ... This tradition assumes that much of central Mexico was dominated by a Toltec Empire between the 10th and 12th century CE. The Aztecs referred to several Mexican city states as Tollan, "Place of Reeds", such as "Tollan Cholollan". The debate about the nature of the Toltec culture goes back to the late 19th century. Mesoamericanist scholars such as Veitia, Manuel Orozco y Berra, Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, and Francisco Clavigero all read the Aztec chronicles and believed them to be realistic historic descriptions of a pan-Mesoamerican empire based at Tula, Hidalgo. This historicist view was first challenged by Daniel Garrison Brinton who argued that the "Toltecs" as described in the Aztec sources were merely one of several Nahuatl-speaking city-states in the Postclassic period, and not a particularly influential one at that. He attributed the Aztec view of the Toltecs to the "tendency of the human mind to glorify the good old days", and the confounding of the place of Tollan with the myth of the struggle between Quetzalcoatland Tezcatlipoca. Désiré Charnay, the first archaeologist to work at Tula, Hidalgo, defended the historicist views based on his impression of the Toltec capital, and was the first to note similarities in architectural styles between Tula and Chichén Itza.
Olmecs (1400–400 BC)- The Olmecs were the first major civilization in Guatemala and Mexico following a progressive development in Soconusco and modern southwestern pacific lowlands of Guatemala. They lived in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the present-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco. It has been speculated that Olmec derive in part from neighboring Mokaya and/or Mixe–Zoque. The population of the Olmecs flourished during Mesoamerica's formative period, dating roughly from as early as 1500 BCE to about 400 BCE. Pre-Olmec cultures had flourished in the area since about 2500 BCE, but by 1600–1500 BCE, early Olmec culture had emerged, centered on the San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán site near the coast in southeast Veracruz. They were the first Mesoamerican civilization, and laid many of the foundations for the civilizations that followed. Among other "firsts", the Olmec appeared to practice ritual bloodletting and played the Mesoamerican ballgame, hallmarks of nearly all subsequent Mesoamerican societies. The aspect of the Olmecs most familiar now is their artwork, particularly the aptly named "colossal heads". The Olmec civilization was first defined through artifacts which collectors purchased on the pre-Columbian art market in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Olmec artworks are considered among ancient America's most striking